The finest in all of Kyoto
by Rerotica
Summary: When he was finished, he looked down at himself. He was clean. He would start clean among the humans, the only place he could turn to. Hiten then ran in fear that he would see Manten going up in flames, just as he had mindlessly murdered others. Ch. 5 up
1. The Bawdyhouse

Hiten looked around. There was no one to talk to but the homeless old woman that crouched by the entrance of the alleyway, silently nibbling on a cold, hard ball of rice. The old woman had been there since he had started to work at the geisha house, and according to other villagers, she had been there for quite a long time, and she was deaf. He tried to speak to her on a few occasions only to be let hung dry by her lack of response.

He could hear them. The ugly, haughty voices that laughed and hee-hawed as the women played their instruments and sang bawdy songs rose louder and louder as the empty bottles of drink piled higher and higher on the table, some strewn across the floor.

"Oh, no, you naughty sir!" a girl giggled, followed by a playful smack of the hand and even more laughter. Laughter was all he heard; day in, day out, all the goddamn time. And he was sick of it, sick of the drunken laughter, sick of the laughter that pealed to rope in the money of the drunken fools. There they went all night, exchanging insincere laughter that burst forth.

Hiten sighed in unison with the old woman.

"There is much merrymaking tonight." She said.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at the hermit strangely. His thoughts were interrupted as the doors slammed open quite hard, hitting him in the side of the shoulder. If it were broad daylight, he would have knocked the life out of anyone who dared to smack him. But this was night, this was his job, and the man who smacked him with the door happened to be the local government official. The tipsy man, his cheeks red with satisfaction and happiness, staggered up to Hiten and looked at the tall, well-tanned man right in the eye.

"You've done well, young man." He laughed and handed him a small pouch. It felt heavy in his hands, and something metal inside it clinked as he squeezed it slightly. "This is my treat to you for tonight for being such an amazing guard!"

'Damn right.' Hiten thought. 'If it weren't for me guarding your ass the peasants would probably have a field day.'

"Who is this old hag?" one of the other men quipped.

"She's just an old, deaf hermit." Hiten said snappishly as to draw attention away from her. She continued chewing on the rice ball, chewing and swallowing. "Pay no attention to her."

"Well, tonight I would like to…show the hag a token of my appreciation." The official tossed a few coins towards her direction, and some of them landed in the dirty old puddles that the rain had made the night before. The money glistened even under the murky water. "Here you go, hag! For your next meal!"

The men stumbled around; tipping all the girls that surrounded them. Hiten tried to draw his anger back tightly. Here were many people starving like this hermit, and here they were, leaders of this country, throwing money around like crazed lunatics! Was this where their tax money went to? Flowing into the pockets of geisha houses and fancy imports and to the brothels?

He patiently waited until the women shooed the men away, but remained watching some shady characters from the corner of his eye. They were making deals with the other women, and he knew what they were up to. They were bartering for the sex workers located behind the geisha house. Behind the magnificent home of the artisans were the prostitutes and lowlifes that society labelled them to be. He could hear every word that the man and the pimp of the brothel were exchanging.

"So I will pay you about this much." A man said, holding out a small package. "It has ten…no, twenty…fifteen…goddamn, I don't know how much is in there, but I know this will be enough."

"Sir, this is not enough for a night with one of our girls."

"Don't try to trick me, woman!" the man shouted. "I…am drunk. But I…I know how much I bring to pay you for the selection of whores you have in your bawdyhouse, and this is always the same price."

The woman was defeated. She raised her head to the side and slipped the pouch into her sleeve.

"Very well." She quipped. "Who would you like to see tonight, sir?"

"You know who." He chuckled. "The regular. You know, the fiery vixen."

"The redhead, sir? We have a few redheads, but I need to have a name."

The man laughed again. Perhaps this was why Hiten grew to hate laughter so much. Those fucking sleazy scum of the world, laughing about exchanging women for the night….it made his blood boil.

"What matters a name when her assets blind my sight?" He brought forth his hands to his chest level and squeezed- yes- as if he were squeezing bosoms of a flowering young virgin. Again, Hiten felt his blood boiling. But he stood aloof; or at least pretended to.

"Well then, sir, I will show you inside. You may see the girl's face and perhaps then you will remember which one."

Hiten watched as the pimp and her customer walked away to the back alley. The pimp looked no more than thirty, but everyone knew her bawdyhouse was one of the best in Kyoto. It was in the heart of the blooming city, bustling with merchants and foreigners and important people. Word of mouth had it that before the previous pimp died of a heart illness, she was the greatest asset of the whorehouse. Now she took her predecessor's place as pimp, and business flourished.

Hiten gripped the handle of his sword tightly. He wanted nothing better to do than to dice the piece of scum right then and there. He had mentioned redhead. There were many girls that used the hair dye to keep their clientele wanting to come back, but there was only one natural redhead in that whorehouse, and it was the one girl he wished to protect.

Ayame.

Was she the dirty scum's fiery vixen?


	2. The First Meeting

_I didn't even realize that I had put the pairing as Bankotsu X Ayame instead of Hiten X Ayame. Thanks for the notice, it's fixed now. But __I do have a Bankotsu X Ayame tale on another account, one that I wrote a couple of years ago. Hopefully I plan to update it, because reading back on it my grammar and writing just seems horrifying. Well, to me, at least._

--

Ayame gathered up her things. It was a habit of hers, to gather up her things. As if she were to run away to a place far, far away. She knew in her heart that she could not run away at all, however. She belonged to the bawdyhouse, and if they were to catch her they would beat her severely. And if they did beat her severely, she wouldn't be able to take on any other work let alone keep earning money as a prostitute. No man, no matter how drunk or out of his mind, would want to pay to sleep with a beaten and crippled girl.

Ayame tightened the front of her robes, but changed her mind and left it hanging. After all, it wasn't as if there was a night when her robes were remaining tightened for more than an hour. She fell back down onto the blanketed floor and closed her eyes.

She knew he was there. Listening. Trying hard not to listen.

Dreaming of him, his soft braided hair, his piercing hawk-like eyes, smouldering gaze and his well-tanned and toned farmer's body, her hands began to stray to forbidden places. It brought her so much shame that he was there while she was engaging in self-pleasure, but she could not help it. She loved him and was sure that he loved her back as well.

She stood up and tiptoed to the door. Ayame sunk low so that he would not see nor hear her, and in the darkness of the room, she gazed lovingly at her friend, her protector, alone. He stood guard with that menacing face of his, the face of a warrior. It turned her on immensely. But that was all she could do.

Watch. Think back to a time when it all started...

And remember...

--

"I see something." Hiten said excitedly. "Pa, come look! I see something!"

Hiten's father rose from his resting chair and walked heavily towards the field where he and his brother stood. Manten tottered on his feet, just to fall over and fall backwards again and again. The tiny tot whimpered of frustration and tossed handfuls of dirt into the air.

"Indeed." Muttered the chief. "I smell wolf."

"Wolf?" Hiten asked. He had heard of the wolf race, but never encountered one.

"Yes, wolf. From the north. My men have told me that they were decimated a while ago, I suppose she is one of the few surviving." The chief leered at the little speck of wolf on the horizon quite menacingly and placed and heavy ornamented hand on his shoulder.

"Go in and tell your mother that a refugee is coming this way. She'll know what to do."

Hiten did as he was told, dashing away to the largest hut in the village. At once his robust mother sprang out with a horde of demon women following her with water, blankets and medicine chests. They ran out to greet the girl, who at once fainted from the overwhelming attention that was brought to her.

"She's so weak." A demon boy said, his third eye blinking rapidly in amazement.

"That's cuz she's a girl, stupid." Hiten snapped smartly. "Boys are stronger than girls. Right, papa?"

The chief did not say a word. He merely looked at the girl with the same eyes that he usually gave him when he had done something wrong. But this girl hadn't done anything wrong…had she?

"Yes, she is weak." His mother said, easily carrying the small girl with both arms. "But not because she is a girl, but because she's been badly hurt. Do you remember when you were badly hurt? That time when you stubbed your toe in the ravine and cried because you broke your toe?"

"I didn't broke my toe!" Hiten argued heatedly with the anger of a child. "And I didn't cry, either!"

"Sure you didn't." said his mother as she walked away, laughing at her adorable little son. "Come inside with your brother and father, the women will be making chicken broth and pork for dinner tonight."

"Awesome!!" Hiten cried out. He picked his baby brother up by the waist and dashed towards the commons. "Pa, let's go! Chicken broth!" Hiten immediately forgot all about the little wolf girl; they were having chicken broth for dinner! Manten's bald little head sparkled off sunlight as he ran towards the warm smell.

--

"I sense something from that creature." The chief said. "And it's not good."

"What do you mean, dear? She's only a little girl."

"You're a demon too, as am I! Don't tell me you don't sense a bad aura from her, woman!"

Hiten closed his eyes and tried hard to seem as though he were sleeping. His parents weren't ordinary; they could immediately tell what he was doing and where, and how even in broad daylight. Afraid of the repercussions of eavesdropping, he turned his back to them and instead faced the hut's sturdy wall.

"I know." The mother admitted. "She does have a bad aura. But she's barely Hiten's age, dear. We can't really tell what she will bring us. We can decide on that later on, but now's not the time."

"I want to rid our tribe of the bad seed now!"

"You remember your father said the exact same thing about me when I first came." he heard his mother's voice drop. "Plus, I wasn't exactly the most attractive woman among the large selection that you could have chosen to be married to."

The chief knew his wife had defeated him yet again in the battle of words. "I know, but darling, I loved you. You're far from being a bad seed, but this girl…she's just too young. Who knows what she could grow up to be?"

"Let's just keep her for awhile. Wolves are a strong race, she could help us in future battles. We are under so much attacks these days."

"You keep in mind that she is a girl!"

"A wolf girl." She said and looked at her husband quite crossly. "You forget that if trained right, that girl could become a valuable asset to our tribe. And as you know…there aren't many of us left."

What did that mean, Hiten wondered? 'Not many of us left?'

"Fine." The chief grumbled as he rose from the bed. "We will keep her until she is of age. Then we will decide what to do with her. Remember these are desperate times; we can't afford to keep another cub if she turns out to be worthless to us."

--

"How old are you?"

"Huh?" Ayame looked up from her pile of rocks, pleasantly surprised to see a demon that at least resembled her in some way. "Are you the son of the chief?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm Hiten. How old are you?"

"I don't remember. But I know I'm older than twenty."

Hiten smirked. "Heh, well then that makes me older than you! I'm twenty-two." He declared seniority with glee.

Ayame didn't understand. "So?"

"So...it's nice to meet you."

"Me too." Ayame blushed. "Do you want to play rock stacking with me?"

Hiten and Ayame, twenty two and twenty, stacked rocks until the sun went down.

--

It all seemed like a whirlwind of memories to him. The incident had been many years back, but he could not help but feel guilty for what had happened after. In his mind he incessantly apologized for what had happened that day...he just had yet to apologize to her.

But time passed and years passed. He wished he could have undone what he did. But of course, he knew it was too late.

--

"Take this, wench!" Hiten lunged forward with his sword as Ayame ducked and rolled to the side to safety. She came behind him with her own scythe as he cleverly spun around, grabbed her wrist and knocked her weapon out of her hands. She punched him in his armoured chest, and Hiten coughed from having the wind knocked out of him. He admitted silently that Ayame was indeed getting stronger and stronger by day, and moved out of the way of several leaf blades that she was now whipping at him.

"Not too easy, huh?" She smirked. Hiten wondered when she had learned to do that attack, but he had no time to think; she had knocked him into the ground, and stood before him with his sword in her hand, smiling down triumphantly.

"I win." she said, handing back his sword and reaching out a hand to lift him up. From where he lay, she looked beautiful. Her ponytailed red hair blew in the wind wildly, and her sweat marks across her neckline and the small dip between the curves of her breasts made her all the more attractive; not to mention, she had grown quite a lot from a vagabond orphan to a strong girl.

(A strong woman)

He blushed fiercly at his inner man that was lusting for her, the most powerful female in his tribe, the one that was deemed worthy enough to fight side by side with his father, the chief. Was she, or was she not aware about the fact that his heart leaped everytime their hands brushed together? Or that he lay at night topless between his sheets, dreaming how it would feel if it were her warm, scented body that was writhing on top of him instead of the blankets? Did she know that her full lips, doe-eyes and muscular yet curvy body turned him on so much that he felt he had to relieve himself or his body would be set aflame?

Apparently not. He watched her pull the large towel off of the branch, wiping her sweat with it. He licked his lips and swallowed a lump lodged in his throat, wishing that the heat would go away. He lusted for her endlessly. Hiten hoped that their regular bath routine wouldn't set him aflame even more. But he felt that was just not possible; he had spent over fifty years with her and the feelings he felt for her were hopefully not mutual.

"Are you coming, loser?" Ayame whipped her towel in his direction and laughed. "Let's go, auntie's making chicken broth today!" She tossed him his towel and ran ahead of him. "Last one to the springs gets to do the dirty laundry!"

He couldn't wait.


	3. Everlusting

_**Warning: This is a story that I rated to be 'M.' If you are not in this 'M' category, please turn back now. This chapter contains lemon.**_

--

Ayame pulled herself up by the edge of the small cliff, struggling to get herself up. Down below, Hiten mentally disciplined himself not to look up at her tantalizing behind that was so securely wrapped up in her furry white skirt. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work. He silently climbed up, and stopped to get a quick glance at her bare ass cheeks. His face heated up as blood rushed to his most intimate parts, but nonetheless he kept climbing. While he tried to distract himself with some other interesting thing, Ayame had already made it up the cliff.

"I beat you!" Ayame cried out. "I'll see you in a bit then, okay? If you finish before me, wait for me!"

And with that she rushed off to the women's side of the spring. The gaping mouth of the cave originally had only one entrance, but the complaints from the younger women in the tribe had forced the men to tunnel through a separate way so that the females would be content. A large wall of bamboo sticks knotted together with twine securely segregated the sexes so that no wandering eye of a male or female would be able to peer through to the other side.

Hiten groaned as he made his way to the male entrance. He slowly started stripping, imagining what it would be like if Ayame would be doing this to him. Hiten removed his armour, letting it drop to the floor with a thud. He then stripped off his sweat-caked shirt, his chest bindings, his shoes and gloves. He looked down at his chest, his rippling abs and rock-hard pectorals. Something else that was rock-hard gave him a faint feeling; and it wasn't the cave.

He dropped his trousers, threw them aside, and made his way into the springs. The warm water, washing the sweat away, cooled him at once. He splashed some hot water onto his face, feeling rejuvenated with every second that he spent in the water. Noticing the wall of bamboo, he sighed out of sexual frustration and clenched his teeth as his nether regions begged to be pleased right then and there. Hiten took a deep breath and forced himself to sink deeply into the waters below.

He shut his eyes tight, and then opened them slightly. The heat of the water would have scalded the eyes of any human or low demon, but he was of a good breed. He watched in amazement as his muscular form gracefully flexed in the warmth of the water. Graceful; something that he never thought he could do. Just then, something caught his eyes.

Was there supposed to be a gap between the wall under water?

Apparently not.

Without thinking twice, he went through the small gap. Hiten's shoulders were too broad to pass through all at once, so he accomplished his goal by letting in one arm first, followed by the other. The rest of his lower half passed through easily. Silently, he searched for Ayame's figure. There was none; which meant that she was probably still undressing. He felt his member pulsating hard. He rose from the waters, only allowing the top half of his face to be emerging; the heavy mist would take care of the rest.

Good God, she was beautiful. He watched as she let loose her wavy, scarlet tresses and kept watching as they fell halfway down her back, exposing her lower back and her buttocks. They looked even more plump and desirable when wet. Ayame turned around, and had yet to notice him visually pleasuring his manly fantasies; she turned around, exposing her frontal view to his lustful eyes. Every curve and dip of her womanly body screamed out to him to be taken, ravished and spent. She sunk lower into the water, lower, lower, and he could not take it anymore. He decided: He would have her tonight.

He stealthily swam over to her. Ayame was pouring oils over her hair to smooth it out, and Hiten immediately grabbed for her wrists. With a loud shriek and a twitch, she let the bottle fall into the water. Whiffs of roses and herbs rose from the spring as the oil hung over the surface of the water, clinging to their skin. Hiten wrapped one strong arm around her torso, feeling her breasts squeeze under his forearm. With his other hand he clamped her mouth shut. Ayame struggled under his iron grip, but her amazing strength was incomparable to his arousal-heightened one.

"Shush, it's only me." Hiten whispered into her ear as he licked her earlobes. "Don't be scared."

Ayame whimpered and muffled in protest. Hiten could feel her mouth opening, perhaps to scream, but was thrown aback when she bit down on his calloused palm as hard as she could, drawing blood. A raw growl escaped his throat, but he held his grip. He had no intention of letting her go. He could only watch her for so long…

"It's me, Hiten. Don't be scared." He repeated again. Ayame was shaking like a leaf in his arms, especially now that his blood was trickling down her neck and seeping into the pool of water. He let his hand go and stroked her neck sensually. "Ayame, I want you."

"Wha…what?" she whispered out of fright.

"I want you." Hiten repeated, then corrected himself. "I need you. Every night I lay awake, wondering how this would feel…you drive me insane."

Ayame blushed furiously. Hiten turned her around to face him, squeezing her between his chest and the stone walls of the cave. He assumed that she didn't like this too much, as there was a prominent scowl on her beautiful face. But she wasn't pushing him away, so he also assumed that she didn't dislike it either. He whispered into her ear, seducing her, nibbling on her earlobe with his hot tongue, grazing it with his pointed fangs.

"You've filled out quite beautifully, Ayame. You knock the living wind out of me. Whenever I see you I want to kiss you, touch you, make love to you, press myself up-" he suggestively ground his pelvis against her nether regions, drawing a small gasp from her. "-against you."

"You shouldn't." Ayame said, coming to her senses, trying to move away from him. "I don't want this, Hiten. We're friends, this isn't supposed to happen."

"You're certainly not fighting back….am I right?"

"……"

"Just trust me." With that, Hiten slowly inched into her lips. Slowly, surely, half-heartedly hoping that she would move in and rid the gap that was between their soft, pillow-like lips. And she did, with a little bit of hesitation. He smelled the oils on her body, on her soft hair. Their lips had only brushed each others' quite coyly; Hiten took this as an invitation to take things further. He grabbed the back of her head and roughly pulled her to him, kissing her tenderly, nibbling on her bottom lip, her upper lip, sliding his tongue into her mouth, trying to coax her to reciprocate. She tentatively returned his gesture, shyly at first, then their tongues moved in a frantic motion; swirling, circling.

With one swift move of his arm, Hiten lifted her onto the side of the cave, where she sat with her buttocks half sitting on the ledge, half hovering in midair. Hiten moved before her, and Ayame dared to take a look down. Through the simmering water she could make out the shape of his muscle-bound thighs, chiselled calves and his hard organ.

He moved closer to her, standing in the water while she sat. Hiten tenderly ran his hands over her face, his fingers stroking her red hair, and was surprised when Ayame brought forth her hands to place them on his chest. Her hands felt like fire, just like the fiery vixen she was to him.

"Do you want me?" Ayame whispered. Her voice was barely audible. "There's no going back. I've never done this before."

"Neither have I." Hiten moaned as she stroked his broad shoulders, the nape of his neck, running her sharp claws down his back gently, scratching him and arousing him. "I want you, Ayame. I've wanted you for a long time."

Ayame did not say anything as she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. Everything happened in a blur; there was no foreplay. She stroked him and gently nudged at his buttocks with her hands. Hiten, seeing this as a sign of relaxation, took his member and slid it in. As Ayame's inner muscles stretched open to adjust to his male hardness, she let out a throaty growl and tightened her grip around his neck and waist.

Hiten protectively drew her tight body to him closer, so close that her chest was soon heaving against his own and his abdomen was gently brushing over her stomach. He buried his face in her hair, taking in the arousing aroma of oils and sweat.

There they were, locked together and inexperienced, and yet there they were instinctively touching, grazing, and kissing each other tenderly. Hiten looked into her eyes, fire in his own, and slowly withdrew himself. He could feel the air cooling down his hot, slicked up maleness. Ayame sighed in satisfaction as he pushed himself all the way into her again.

"Ohhh…" she let out a small whine of pleasure. "Oh god…"

Hiten grunted in response. Those two little words were enough to last him a lifetime. His main intention was to please her before moving on to please himself, but amidst the chemistry and lust, his principal feelings were forgotten. He lifted her off of the rocky ledge and, supporting her entire weight with only his muscular arms, he started thrusting her in mid-air.

"Oh, Hiten….ah, ahhh, ohh….oh, oh god…please….don't….don't stop…." Ayame gasped out between deep breaths of air. The harder and faster he banged her, the louder and higher she screamed. Her screams bounced off of the cave walls, echoing in his ears. He was moving at an impossible speed, a demonic, maniacal speed that only demons such as himself could ever be able to make. Hiten moved his hips faster and faster, his head dizzying from the overwhelming heat and the lustful cries of his woman, his girl, the one he had been pining for so long.

Ayame's head wasn't stable, either. She could feel his long, thick demon prick sliding in and out of her, the thrusts becoming more animalistic and wild as they continued. She felt her entire body tensing up, up , up , into the centre of something similar to heaven. If there was anything closest to heaven on earth, this was probably it. She felt so wicked, spreading her legs for Hiten to pleasure them both with, being naked and sweaty with him, crying out his name, squeezing him with her pelvic muscles.

And at once heaven became delirious. Hiten pumped her so fast, so hard, the whites of his eyes soon turned as red as his irises, the demon inside of him satisfying his urges until the cup runneth over. His senses were on fire; he saw her face, twisted in pleasurable agony. He smelled their arousal mixing with sweat and tears that squeezed out from the edges of her eyes, felt her hot skin elevating to scorching, her wolf aura kicking in slowly. He was ready. So was she.

With one final thrust he let out a guttural moan as he emptied his juices into her. She felt him before she saw him, the strong spurts of streaming cum splashing inside her, his pulsating member. His behemoth rod swelled and contracted, but did more swelling than contracting. As it twitched in length and thickness, she felt a white-hot blinding sensation inside her and let out several high squeals to match his final few thrusts.

"Ohhh…" Ayame felt her body going limp from the intense climax. The only thing keeping her from falling backwards into the water was Hiten's strong arms, those masculine, strong arms. She leaned back slightly as Hiten leaned forward to kiss her milky soft breasts.

"I love you." She murmured, basking in her afterglow. Hiten slowly pulled her back up so that her eyes met his. His eyes, usually so smouldering and intimidating to all others, looked soft and gentle as a puppy's to her. He gazed into her, running his thumb down her temples, her high cheekbones, and down to her lower lip. He was about to move into another kiss when he heard a voice that ran chills down his spine:

"Meet me after dinner, son."

Hiten whipped around to see his father standing there.

Without another word, the chief turned on his heels and stormed out.


	4. The exit is that way

Hiten knelt before his father, his eyes not wanting to meet his angry ones. His mother stood outside, making sure that no one would come in and overhear their private conversations.

How long was forever? He wasn't sure. He looked up slightly to see his father's brows furrowed, the corner of his mouth twitching in absolute rage. His hands wrapped themselves around his knees, the knuckles on his fingers turning white. If it were not for his father's piercing eagle eyed glare, he surely felt that he would have been shaking like a mouse before a hound. He sat, waiting, trying to be calm.

And then the blow came.

Without warning, the chief took his hand, raised it beyond his head, and backhanded him across the face. His father's plated gloves gouged a long, deep scratch into his skin, starting at his cheekbones and streaking up to his forehead. At an impossible speed, his father's hand was raised once again, and this time the palm met cheek. Hiten could feel blood slowly trickling from his face, but that was no matter; he would heal in two days or less. He did not budge from his frozen state.

"How dare you." The strain in his voice contained a powerful anger. "HOW DARE YOU!! Do you realize what you have DONE?"

Hiten sunk his head in comprehension.

"She-is-an-orphan!" he growled. "She is a nobody, probably the last existing ones of her species!"

"Father, I love her." he said weakly.

"Not love, son. You lust. You lust after her. Love is completely different from lust!!"

"You do not understand, I have been with her for so many years, and-"

The chief banged his fist hard on the side table, hitting it so hard that it splintered at the center. "You are the son of the chief! You are MY son! When I die YOU will carry on our tribe, and when YOU die, YOUR child will carry on. I do not want even the slightest chance that my grandson will be a half-bred bastard child grown inside an almost-extinct stray mongrel breed!!"

Hiten growled by instinct. "Father, you take this too far."

"Do you think I was happy to keep her, son?" he whispered. "I only kept her around because your mother felt sorry for her. If not for your mother, I would have put her out of her misery already. I knew it!" he yelled so that his mother could hear. "I told you she would bring a negative channel to this family!"

"It takes two, darling." His mother was always the sensible one; he loved her for it. "She did not attack him, that's for sure." There was disappointment mixed in her voice, and Hiten did not blame her.

"It does not matter whether you started it or she started it. She leaves in the morning." The chief said. "I have decided."

Hiten looked up in disbelief. "Father, no…I...please reconsider, I…" his eyes then gave off the slightest tinge of crimson. "I won't let you."

"I dare you to repeat that."

"You…can't let her go." Hiten said, this time with a bit less confidence. "I love her, father!"

The chief let out a hearty laughter, his head thrown back, his hair curling at the tips as he continued to laugh. The laughter wasn't an amusing one, but that of utter disbelief and disappointment. As the chief caught his breath, he let out a growl.

"Then leave." He said. "If you love her so much, LEAVE! I won't have a blue-blooded demon son of mine even having any premarital relations; no, any relation to a girl like that; at all!"

It was Hiten's turn to be thrown off guard.

"Son, my dear, dear son…" the chief stood up and walked around the hut. "Do you think you are the only son of mine? If you fail to lead this tribe, your younger brother Manten will be more than happy to step into your shoes to fulfill the duties that you so carelessly threw away. If you so wish, you are free to leave with her. Go, start your own family out there in the world of humans or demons. Become shackled to work and money and forced to make a living on your own.

"Or you could stay in your rightful place as my son, your mother's son, your brother's sibling, and this tribe's future pride and FULFILL YOUR DUTIES!

"Son, there are many women within this tribe that I would be more than happy to marry you off to. There are so many good girls that will make excellent homemakers and bear you plentiful sons. Remember who you are. Either give her up, or give up your entire life as you knew it."

The chief walked out the door where he met up with his mother. As a last thought, he turned around to him.

"Remember who you are, son." He said. "And remember what you would be giving up."

--

"Oh god, you're bleeding again!" Ayame dug through her sleeve for a kerchief, but when all else failed she took her own sleeve and started dabbing at the scar. Hiten pushed her hand away, refusing treatment. Treatment from her was the last thing he wanted, given the information that he was about to tell her.

Hiten paced round and round, biting the skin off his knuckles; something he would do when extremely nervous. He kept thinking back to his father's lecture to him, his words replaying and playing and playing…

"So what's this you need to tell me?" Ayame said, her face falling glum. "Is your father cross with me? Look, if I need to take the blame, I'll…I'll gladly take it."

"Ayame…"

"Oh, what did your father say to you? Please tell me, I know he said something that's important. Is he going to get Manten to succeed him? What is he going to do to you?"

"It's not about what he's going to do to you." Hiten said.

_(am I really in love with her maybe my father was right after all she's only a girl and who's to say she's pregnant)_

Ayame's eyes widened. "What do you mean…?"

_(and even if she is she should be able to find other wolf demons out there for support who's to say they're not completely extinct yes there will be plenty of them to take care of her)_

"I mean…look, I love you." Hiten choked out, cupping her face in both his hands.

_(?do you really?)_

"I mean, I don't love… I mean," he stammered as he saw that her eyes were welling up with tears that threatened to fall, "I mean…I don't know if I love you."

_(damn straight now kick her out kick her good in the ass and go on with your life there are plenty more girls out there to properly mate with not in some scummy cave with oil-caked water you can be glorious leader leader of your people of your tribe yo ho ho ho )_

_(shut up shut up shut up just shut up you know you love her you coward you fucking cow just admit it to her go far away with her who needs leader when you have your soulmate your best friend what's better than to spend life with your best friend your lover )_

"I love you."

"Don't say that. It's not true."

"Oh what?" Ayame's voice began to rise in anger and bitterness. "What, you can only spend so much time with someone before you start to see something in them, something attractive and…lovable and this…this longing, you're there everyday but to me you seem so far away and I can't take it! Hiten, we've only spent, I don't know, about a hundred years together!"

"It's not about time, Ayame. It's…"

"It's what? You don't want to lose your position on your high horse? You don't want the tribe whispering, 'oh, there goes the chief's son, did you hear he fucked the shit out of the vagabond whore?'"

_(oh god no keep it to yourself don't get angry at her shut up shut up lock your demon inside you don't)_

"YES!" he yelled. His voice bounced off the trees and bushes, followed by a huge rustling of little disturbed critters running from the booming threat that was Hiten's frustration. "There's no way that this can work, ever! If I choose to stay with you, and god forbid you're pregnant with my child, my father demands that I move out with you so that Manten can take my place! But if I don't, then only you leave and I stay here, and eventually I'm going to become the leader of my tribe! I don't know if you noticed, but I'm blue-blooded, Ayame! You're not! You probably were back in your tribe, but that was before you guys got wiped off the face of the earth!"

"I know I was taken in, Hiten. You don't have to remind me again."

Her calm response kicked his frustration down a notch. He felt the steam rising from his body, slowly cooling down in the midnight air.

"Either way you'll have to leave, Ayame." Hiten said. "Look, you know how much I've trained to become leader. I can't just give it up now. I can't quit. I can't let Manten take over for me because you and I know better than anyone else that he can't handle a real battle."

"So you'd rather let me go and toss me out into god knows where so you can fulfill your goal."

"Look, when I become leader, I'll look for you. I promise. Then you can live in the tribe again, and we can still technically be together, and I…" it didn't take him a while to realize that out of shame, he was rambling on about some nonsensical gibberish that was also quite ridiculous to hear, so he cut to the chase and started his apology. "I am really sorry that this had to happen-"

Ayame's slap came with notice. Hiten fully saw it coming and he took it. It hurt less than his father's backhand, but it came with more of a sting to the heart.

"Don't apologize." She hissed between her grinding fangs, which were now bared to the full. "Don't talk to me. Don't try to look for me, and do NOT expect to see me ever again."

Hiten stood with shame for the second time that night. All he could do was watch Ayame walking away, sweet little Ayame, his best friend, his only girl friend, driven away by his selfishness. But what was he to do?

"Oh, and by the way…" she said without turning back to face him; and her words chilled him to the bone with how much hatred that was laced in her voice; "…if god truly does hate me and I do become pregnant with your child, I'm going to do everything possible to rip your filthy seed out of me."

With that, Ayame jumped away into the shadows towards somewhere,

Nowhere.


	5. His Demise

_I realize after the thunder brothers' episode that Hiten was cut in two, and then crumbled to dust. However, for the purpose of this story he will be un-dustified._

_I also know that in the anime, Manten had his forehead torn out by Hiten. The following scene is adapted to the manga, where Manten had his heart torn out by Hiten._

--

How long had it been?

Days?

Weeks?

Years?

God. His chest burned like hellfire.

All sense of time left him as he lay there among the rocky terrain, rain-soaked and indifferent. He looked at his fingers, bloated at the joints and calluses beginning to form in his palm where he gripped at his blade. His father's blade that was passed down to him when he passed away now lay in two pieces on the ground, useless and pathetic.

He put his heart into a small twitch. His left fingers curled up into his palm, then relaxed and stretched back outwards. He had no energy left to move, to breathe. He replayed his whole life and how he had made a mistake.

Hiten wished Ayame were here. If she were here to mock him and pummel his face into the dirt, he might feel less bad for what he had done to her.

A few months after he took his father's place as chief, it wasn't another tribe of demons, but a forest fire that was started ironically by a lightning and thunderstorm that wiped out his tribe. The neighbouring kappa tribe was nearby, and with their help in carrying water in their hollow skulls and bringing it upstream to smush the flames, the fire would not have been such a big deal. But a truce that went wrong irritated the kappa tribe to such an extent that they refused to lend any help whatsoever. Hiten had his chariot shoes, Manten had his raincloud; the rest of the tribe had nothing.

He felt like a failure. First he had let Ayame down when she needed help the most; now followed by her, he was letting his entire tribe down. But they weren't going to get out of this alive, so none of them would be able to live to tell the tale. He wanted to curl up into a ball and die. The stench of flesh burning away into charcoal and yellow fat suffocated him so much that he had went away, far away.

'_Remember who you are, son. Remember what you would be giving up.' _

Not much. In fact, nothing at all. The position of leader slipped away just as quick as he had inherited the title. Everything was slipped away; his brother, his home up in the cliffs, and…

He painfully reached up to his forehead. Nothing was there anymore. He couldn't feel the rough serrated edges of the shikon shards that had been firmly planted into his skin, only a wet mass of blood and bone.

--

Days that felt like years passed by. Hiten's demon form had almost finished healing, although the deep cut that the goddamned mongrel had given him would leave a quite nasty scar. He groaned and stood up, but found that to his dismay, part of his wounds had healed over the ground. Gritting his teeth, he managed to tear himself away from the ground; he was too numb to feel the pain.

A barren wasteland greeted him. The combined power of his thunder attacks and that Inuyasha's attacks had dug scars into the cliffs, the ground, the rocks, everything in sight. The few trees that stood remaining were burnt to a crisp, while the rest were reduced to a handful of ashes. Not too far away from his broken thunder pike lay Manten, a gaping wound torn through his chest. He could have lived if he had left his body alone; but slowly he realized that in the process, he had gone mad and cannibalised his own brother. His heart was gone; there was no way he could come back to life.

He saw the wooden handle of the pike not too far from Manten's carcass. Hiten grunted and tried to fly, but weakly fell over and it hit him; that human bitch had wrecked one of his chariot wheels. Devastated, Hiten screamed, a buildup that ruptured in his throat until his esophagus went raw, and kicked the remaining lone wheel into a boulder. It shattered and splintered into pieces, ones that couldn't be undone.

Just like his life.

_'Remember who you are. Remember what you would be giving up.'_

"I've given everything up." Hiten yelled out towards the sky, as if his father were looming over and listening to him. "I've given EVERYTHING up! The tribe, the village, my brother, my existence!! Is this what you wanted?!"

For the first time in his life, Hiten collapsed to the ground and wept bitterly.

--

When he came to, the sun was shining. He knew because it resembled a bright white light behind his closed eyelids, and he work with a start. He almost moved mechanically. For the first time in his life, Hiten was alone. No family, no father, and no title for him to brandish wherever he went.

He wasn't Hiten the chief anymore. He wasn't even Hiten, eldest of the thunder brothers. There were no thunder brothers anymore. He was just Hiten. Just plain, simple, destitute Hiten; thrown into the world where no one would feed him with a silver spoon.

The cliff was very high; for once in his life, he began to realize how important his chariot wheels were to sustain himself ever since he inherited them from his father. He hadn't had to climb since…

_(the day you lost yours)_

_(lost what? My virginity, or my dignity? Or my common sense)_

_?_

That day.

A putrid smell pierced his nose time and time again as he ransacked his own home, looking for any belongings that might enable him to start anew. The first thing he did was to strip down naked and take a bath with boiling water. Hiten solemnly watched as he was cleansed of mud, dirt, rain and sweat streaks and blood. Every one of his crevices was being cleansed, from the dirt under his nails to the caked blood that mangled with his chest hairs and clung to his wounds.

When he was finished, he looked down at himself. He was clean. He would start clean. He wondered painfully if this was how Ayame felt when she was forced to leave their tribe. Hiten wished he knew where to find her.

He walked through the home that once belonged to him, looking through some drawers. He managed to pull out a proper-looking top and hakama bottom, ones that he wore to sleep. He went back to his pile of discarded armour with a picking knife and proceeded to pick out the precious stones that adorned his pads. He bit down on his lip; How in the world did he come to this? Stooping to such a level so he could live a new life…his father would be turning over in his grave.

Hiten strode out, stepping over his now-dead woman's body. It was beginning to decay; the worms and filth would take care of her. He had half a mind to go back and bury her, but that thought quickly dissolved. All he wanted to do was to run away, far away where no one would recognize him. What if he had to live among the humans? It was the only place he could turn to. His father had alienated so many nearby tribes that he knew he wouldn't be able to fit in with the demons anymore. The kappa, the wolves, the dogs, the foxes, the baboons…no one would take him.

He covered Manten's body with dry branches he cut down and held his palm forward. But something caused him to hesitate; was his ability to produce thunder still intact? He prayed that it did and felt a surge of electricity coursing through his veins. The lightening instantaneously caused the bundles to rise into flame, engulfing Manten's lifeless form.

He looked back one last time at his home as tears rolled onto his cheeks and ran in fear that he would see his brother going up into flames like his tribe had, reduced only to bones and yellow fat.

--

Hiten looked up at the morning sky. The sunrise gave off a glowing orange tinged with a shy blush of pink. Smiling bitterly, he waited, crouched by the side door of the brothel. He could hear through the door some rustling of clothes, a pompous cough, and saw-heard the sliding door open as a large, disgusting man, probably one that came after he had left to his home, stepped down the stairs. Even though he tried to control himself, Hiten could not help but glare with a look of hatred on his face.

"What're you looking at, you twit?" the man spat on him and walked away. Hiten made a mental memo to himself to do away with him a few nights later, perhaps drag him into the old hermit woman's alley and pull out his fingernails or crack his neck in three places.

Interrupting his thoughts, a new figure stepped out of the room.

"Hiten." she blushed, trying to look at decent and ladylike as possible.

"Ayame." Hiten whispered. "Come, let me take you home."


End file.
